Halina Wasilewska-Trenkner

Born on 26 April 1942 in Warsaw.

After completing her secondary school studies at the XV Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. N. Żmichowskiej in Warsaw, she took up her studies at Warsaw School of Planning and Statistics – SGPiS (at present Warsaw School of Economics – SGH) in the Department of Economy and Foreign Trade. In 1964 she sat for her master’s examination and commenced her professional work at the SGPiS (SGH), where she was an assistant professor until 1974. She sat for her doctoral exam in 1973.

In 1974 she started work at the Chancellery of the Government Commission on Population set up under the Planning Commission at the Council of Ministers. In 1986 she was appointed vice-director of the Employment and Earnings Unit of the Planning Commission at the Council of Ministers. During an institutional reorganisation in 1987 she moved to the position of vice-director of the Regulatory Systems and Planning Methods Unit where she served until the Planning Commission at the Council of Ministers was dissolved. In 1989 she was appointed director of the Economic System Department at the Central Planning Office (CUP) and in 1991 she became director of the Economic Strategy Department at CUP. In October 1991 she was appointed Secretary of State at CUP.

In the years 1991-1992 she served as Chairperson of the 29th Session of Senior Economic Advisers at the UNECE in Geneva.

From 1995 she worked at the Ministry of Finance where she held the following positions: Under-Secretary directing the state budget preparation and realisation (1995-2001), Minister of Finance (August-October 2001) and again Under-Secretary (2001-2002); in August 2002 she was appointed Secretary of State and at the same time Government Plenipotentiary for the Restructuring of Public Finances.

From 1996 she served as Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of the National Economy Bank.

In the years 1975-1990 she was Scientific Secretary of the Committee of Demographic Sciences at the Polish Academy of Sciences and from 1995 member of the Statistical Council. She has numerous publications in the area of demographics, population policies and macro-economic issues, in particular those regarding the link between demographic and economic problems; some of these have been published abroad. In 2002 she was honoured with the Andrzej Bączkowski Award.

She died on 15 November 2017.